Good morning. The middle of the week is here and so is your Wednesday Digest. For daily updates, subscribe to the Minnesota Today podcast.
The coronavirus peak could come in about two months, or sooner. From our story: "Updating reporters Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz said the state’s modeling suggests the peak for hospitalizations could be pushed into late May in Minnesota, although that could happen two weeks earlier or later."
Walz said the state must be ready for a surge sooner. “Sometime here in the next four weeks, we need to be prepared for that to be upon us,” he said. The projections will be updated as the pandemic continues.
Housing advocates are hurrying to prevent a major spread of COVID-19 at homeless shelters. Via MinnPost's Jessica Lee : "Emergency homeless shelters in Minnesota are scrambling to move guests with underlying health conditions to hotels or apartments to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Across the state, housing advocates are worried that the shelters’ inability to keep guests away from each other, given many facilities’ side-by-side cots and shared bathrooms, could turn them into 'ground zero' for an outbreak."
The Trump administration isn't just focused on the coronavirus ... it's also clawing back environmental protections. Via NPR: "The Trump administration has finalized its rollback of a major Obama-era climate policy, weakening auto emissions standards in a move it says will mean cheaper cars for consumers."
The measure could lead to dirtier air and higher gas prices. More from NPR: "[Critics] say the new rule will lead to nearly a billion additional metric tons of climate warming CO2 in the atmosphere, and that consumers will end up losing money by buying about 80 billion more gallons of gas."
| 
